The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing members where semiconductor chips or other members are cut out from a substrate.
Conventionally, in the manufacture of semiconductor devices such as discrete transistors, bipolar integrated circuits (hereinafter referred to as "IC's"), metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) IC's and compound semiconductor devices etc., Charge Coupled Device (hereinafter referred to as "CCD's") light receiving elements for CCD area sensors/linear sensors, and optical filters etc., large numbers of members such as chips or filters etc. have been collectively manufactured from a single substrate.
For example, with semiconductor devices and CCD devices, large numbers of chips have been manufactured taking silicon wafers as substrates, while with optical filters, large numbers of filters have been manufactured taking boro-silicated glass or quartz glass plates as the substrates.
Whichever members are manufactured, the characteristics etc. of each of the members are to be evaluated via an inspection process before the large number of members formed on the substrate are cut out, to determine whether or not members are defective. An ink mark is then applied to a member when this member is deemed to be defective.
In the case of semiconductor devices or CCD devices, from the point of view of achieving thinness in the integrated circuits, the lower surface of the wafer is gradually ground before cutting out so as to thin-out the overall thickness. With filters, the lower surface is polished to remove debris that may have become attached to this lower surface and to remove any damage incurred.
However, with this kind of method of manufacturing a member, when an evaluation inspection of the characteristics etc. is carried out after the lower surface has been ground etc., cracking or breaking off occurs in the substrate as a result of pin pressure during characteristic measurements or impacts at the time of physical distribution. The substrate can be made extremely thin, however, as a result of grinding, but as the size of substrates has progressed in recent years, this cracking etc. has become more striking.
Further, grinding the lower surface after the evaluation inspection has been carried out has been considered, but in this case, if defective members are applied with ink marks, pressure exerted on the lower side of the substrate during subsequent lower surface grinding etc. is concentrated on the members via the ink marks to cause the members to crack. This is due to the applied ink marks elevated from the surface of the substrate to make the surface nonuniform and the pressure during grinding is concentrated to act onto the substrate from the positions of the ink marks depending mainly on the height and hardness of the ink marks and the hardness of the protective tape attached to the surface of the substrate during the grinding of the lower surface.
To solve this, rather than applying ink marks to defective members during evaluation inspection, a method was considered where information pertaining to defective members was recorded on a floppy disc etc. as map data. However, if the evaluated information was recorded a medium other than the substrate, it was necessary to transport the substrate together with the medium for carrying out subsequent processes such as, for example, die bonding. Further, defect determination data could not be accurately played back as a result of mistakes made when inputting the map data and the inability not to be able to make a match with substrate member positions. A large-scale data management system was therefore necessary to enable defect determination information to be reliably reproduced.